


Four Hours Too Late

by Pixiemage



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Gen, Loke's Reaction, One-sided LoLu, Post-Tenroujima Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 00:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10842507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixiemage/pseuds/Pixiemage
Summary: Loke had left Lucy, Gray, and Cana to fend for themselves on Tenrou Island. He had left to recuperate, to rest, and - eventually - to return. With events being left as they were when he and Capricorn left to the spirit world, he wasn't about to stay out of it. But when he awakes from his rest to find that four hours had passed in his time, he can't help but begin to worry for Lucy.In watching Fairy Tail recently, I remembered a moment where Lucy comments that her spirits must have been so worried during the Seven Year Gap. The response it received was more or less unphased (from Virgo, if memory serves) and basically said that they hadn't been bored, that it really didn't bother them. But somehow...I wondered...was that really the case? Time passes differently where they live so it wouldn't have taken nearly as long...but based on how much he cares for Lucy, I got the feeling Loke wouldn't have let her disappearance slide so easily, especially with how involved he was in the events on Tenrou Island...(A one-shot that may or may not become part of a full story; to be decided)





	Four Hours Too Late

Loke awoke to a dull, throbbing headache and a slowly fading pain in his back. He winced and sat up, reaching out for his sunglasses and glancing around for a clock. After being possessed by Zoldeo then forcibly attacked by Capricorn with his own magic - of the lion’s own choosing, so no blame there - Loke had needed the rest. The S-Class trials and the battles waging across Tenrou Island had already taken their toll, but adding an overpowered dose of his own Regulus magic to the mix had left him at the end of his rope. He had no choice but to return to the spirit world. He was only grateful that Lucy was so understanding.

Lucy...he’d left her with Cana and Gray. Regardless of how much he trusted Gray’s capabilities, and even Cana’s to a degree, he still felt some guilt for leaving her like that.   
  
_ ‘It’s not your fault, Loke. You know that.’ _   
  
Loke smiled as he put on his sunglasses, picturing exactly what Lucy would have said if he were to bring the subject up with her. The loyal Celestial Spirit mage would probably have gone on and on about how Loke was her friend, and if he was worried about her than surely she had the freedom to worry about him too. She’s say that his health was just as important as hers, and she’d be fine for a while without him. And Loke? Well. He knew she would be. Lucy was stronger than most people gave her credit for.   
  
In the midst of this cheerful thought, however, Loke’s eyes finally landed on the nearest clock and his expression tensed, a sharp gasp breaking the silence of his bedroom. Four...hours? A sudden concern mounted in his chest as he registered this. Four hours. It had been four hours. Four whole hours since he had returned to the spirit world, since he had fallen asleep. Four hours since he had left Lucy and the others on Tenrou Island, and he had yet to hear from his master. In fact, it just now occurred to him how strange it was to awaken of his own accord rather than being awakened by the sensation of Lucy calling out to him. True, the lion had told her he would need time to recover, but four hours…   
  
...four  _ Celestial _ hours.   
  
Over two weeks would have passed in Earthland. For as a busy as Lucy’s life normally was, a gap of that length between summonings set off alarms in Loke’s head, especially knowing what had been going on at the point of his departure. He shoved off from his bed to pace in the middle of the room, hands buried deep in his pockets, hazel eyes tense behind blue lenses. Had she simply not thought to call on him? Or perhaps she was being kind, allowing him extra time to heal? Or - he gritted his teeth and his shoulders hunched at the thought, hands curling into fists in his pockets - had something happened? Was she unable to summon him? Was she–   
  
No. She was alive. Loke could feel his connection to her, to his key, could feel the solidity of their contract still being upheld. That, at the very least, calmed him slightly, even though he couldn't help but stay concerned. He could feel his connection to Lucy, true, but it felt...muffled somehow. Muted. Like he was trying to reach her through a fog. He forced himself to take a breath and closed his eyes briefly. Maybe it was nothing, and he was worrying for nothing, and there was nothing wrong at all.   
  
_ ‘I don’t even call you out half the time! You just show up! And you’re WAY too good at popping up at inappropriate times. Pervy lion...hey! Keep your eyes above the neckline, sunshine!’ _   
  
Lucy had said that herself once, and recently too. He had popped in while she was getting changed - totally by accident, of course, or so he told himself. Her reaction had been far from pleased. A weak smile graced his features. Perhaps that was why it felt so odd. He was used to visiting all the time...but was it really by her choosing or his? He couldn’t even remember. As he pondered this, it also occurred to him that he could clear this all up rather quickly if he just asked another of her spirits.   
  
“Virgo?” He called out her name. The maiden appeared in the room, not one to leave the leader of the Zodiac waiting for too long.   
  
“Yes, big brother?”

“Has Lucy summoned you recently?”   
  
“That depends on what you mean by recently. By our time, yes. But by hers, no.”   
  
“How long ago?” His words were tense, on edge, his head slightly bowed and his eyes partially hidden by his mane.

“I don’t remember exactly. But I think it was before you returned.”   
  
“What about everyone else?” he demanded, a desperation leaking into his words. “Has she summoned anyone else?”   
  
“Some of us. But it has been a few hours since then.”   
  
“I don’t like this.” The lion bared his teeth and snarled, eyes still locked on his shoes. “It’s been too long. They would have been back at the guildhall by now. Something’s not right.”   
  
“I’m sorry that I cannot be of more help,” Virgo said, as plainly as ever, and for a moment her expression wavered. But only for a moment. Then– “Do you want to punish me, big brother?”   
  
Her words gained only a small shake of Loke’s head.   
  
“I’m going to check on her,” he told Virgo, finally looking up. The expression in his eyes was both fearful and determined, and there was something more there, an emotion that he had never been very good at hiding and one that Lucy had never been very good at reading from him. “Let the others know. I’ll be back shortly.” And despite the slight pain he was still feeling from that Regulus blast, Loke forced open his own gate and vanished in a brilliant light.

 

 

When Loke reappeared, accompanied by the usual glow of golden light, he was already in a fighting stance with one fist raised and the opposite hand gripping his wrist. But much to his surprise he didn’t even have a moment to take in his surroundings – an endless expanse of blue – before he was dropped unceremoniously into the open sea. He resurfaced with splashing and a gasping breath and he was left coughing and spluttering for a moment. Startled, confused eyes flitted frantically across the waves. What…? The lion ignored the water droplets on his sunglasses, and the way his mane of hair clung, damp, to his head.

This wasn’t right. Where was he? Where was Lucy? He could sense her presence but...in the middle of the ocean? His aim could have been off due to the strange haze clouding his connection to Lucy, but even so. He could see neither a ship not Tenrou Island (if that was even near where he had landed), or any other islands for that matter. Nothing but open water and blue skies as far as the eye could see. So unless she was below the water’s surface–

With this thought, Loke took a deep breath and vanished beneath the waves. His suit jacket fanned out in the water behind him and his hair created a ginger halo around his head as he searched the water’s depths for any sign of Lucy. Nothing caught his eyes, no blonde hair, no flash of light reflecting off her keys. Nothing. The only oddity he could see was a massive, flat slab of stone that didn’t look like it could have formed naturally, but it wasn’t important. Lucy was his top priority. He could feel her magic, could sense her presence. She was close...he  _ knew _ she was! Why couldn’t he find her? Why couldn’t he communicate to her through his key? What could have happened since he had left her on that island…?   
  
The lion growled low in his throat and disappeared in a flash, leaving only the slightest ripple in the water, the only sign he had ever been there at all.

  
  


  
  


“The Magic Council said there was no way they could have survived it. You heard it yourself.”   
  
“But I still don’t believe it! Until I see proof that Levi’s dead, I refuse to believe it! Are you giving up on them, Macao?”   
  
“I don’t want it to be true any more than you do! But...Jet, you heard them. We heard what they said. Acnologia destroyed the Island. There is no way anyone could have lived through that.” Macao gripped the frantic young man by the shoulders, shaking him slightly, trying to stop his hysterics. “I...I don’t want to believe it either. But what choice do I have? What proof do you want? The island isn’t there anymore. There’s nothing left to look at  _ for _ proof.”

“Then we’ve just been looking in the wrong place!” Jet snapped, his hat toppling off his head as he tried to yank away from the older wizard. “They’re not–”

The front doors of the guild flew open with a bang, and every eye in the room turned to see the silhouette of a familiar friend standing in the doorway, his suit dripping wet and his head bowed.

“Loke?” It was Alzack who spoke up, standing from his spot beside Bisca. “Oh my god...it’s really you.”

“Wait,” Jet murmured, shoving Macao’s hands away and stooping to fetch his hat. “If you’re here, then–”

  
  
“Where’s Lucy?”

 

Loke and Jet’s voices sounded in unison, both asking the same question, both with the same level of desperation in their voices.

“What do you mean, ‘Where’s Lucy’?” Alzack asked Loke. “Didn’t she summon you?”   
  
“She doesn’t have to. I can open my own gate. I’m the leader of the Zodiac. And with Lucy as my owner…” A weak smile graced his features and he raised his head to meet the gunslinger’s gaze. “Lucy cares greatly for her spirits. Love makes spirits stronger.” There was an unspoken depth to his words. The smile didn’t last. “They aren’t back from Tenrou Island yet?”

 

The silence that met his words was deafening. It was Macao who finally broke it.

 

“You…haven’t heard?” His tone was sorrowful, apologetic. Loke tensed, not sure he wanted to know what that meant.

“Heard what?”

“...the Island is gone, Loke. It was destroyed, by a dragon. Acnologia. The council believes Zeref summoned him.”

Loke’s breath caught in his throat. Acnologia. He knew that name all too well. He had been around back when that beast had first come into being, and it was a name he had hoped he would never hear again. And Zeref...another horror.

“You’re...not serious…” he choked out. His hands curled into fists at his sides and he searched Macao’s expression for any sign that he was lying. “...what...what about the others? Where are they?”

“Gone. Destroyed with the island.” Macao looked away, unable to meet Loke’s gaze. “They’re dead.”

“They can’t be.” The words left him on a hoarse whisper.

“I don’t want to believe it either,” Alzack agreed, and he approached his friend with hesitance in his steps. “Honestly, I don’t. But nobody could have survived that.”

Alzack reached out and put a hand on Loke’s shoulder. The spirit clenched his teeth and bowed his head, shaking where he stood, a soft golden glow coming from him. It was obvious to Alzack that he was fighting back his emotions.

“Even if they could’ve lived through that, we searched the area for days.” Wakaba this time. “There’s no sign of ‘em. I’m sorry, man.”

“No!” Loke roared, exuding a sudden wave of light and magic that sent Alzack staggering back a few paces. “No, they’re not dead! That’s not possible! At the very least, Lucy’s still alive. I can feel it!”

“Loke, calm down, okay?” Alzack stammered, glancing back toward Bisca with concern in his eyes. “I know, it’s hard to hear. I get it. We don’t want them to be dead any more than you do.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Loke snapped. Light magic was glowing around his fists and an invisible wind had picked up in the room, tugging at the jacket of his suit. “I can feel her. I know she’s alive, I just...can’t... _ find her!” _ He drove his right fist downward, expelling an attack into the floor of the hall. The stones beneath his feet shattered and a cloud of dust kicked up around him. A few people in the room gasped softly. Loke dropped to one knee with his fist still pressed into the ground, his shoulders heaving and his breathing harsh. “She...she’s alive. She is. But I can’t...I can’t...why can’t I find her? Where is she…?”

It was a long, quiet moment before Alzack and Jet both got up the nerve to approach their friend. They both knelt beside him and Alzack placed his hand back on Loke’s shoulder where it had been before.

“Why don’t you sit down, okay?” he suggested.

“You’ve been looking for them too?” Jet asked. The hope in his voice was evident. “Maybe we can exchange what we know. Figure something out. I still believe they’re out there somewhere, even if Macao’s given up.”

“Hey!” Macao’s protest fell on deaf ears.

 

Loke, at first, didn’t move. He stayed in the same position on the ground until his breathing leveled out, then he let his shoulders sag, the fight leaving him. They were right. They both were. Talking through this rationally would be more help than destroying the guildhall out of frustration. With a soft breath he withdrew his fist from the floor and nodded. The pair helped Loke to his feet and followed him over to one of the tables, the one at which Bisca was already seated. Alzack took up his spot beside her once more and Jet sat beside Loke, trying to catch his eye. But the lion was holding his head in his hands, elbows propped on the table’s surface and fingers tangled in his mane.

“I should have been there,” he muttered, a tone of self-blame heavy in his words. “I shouldn’t have left.”

“What happened on the island?” Bisca asked, leaning forward a little. None of the guild members left in Magnolia had been there, and all they knew had been passed on to them from Lahar, a member of the Council’s law enforcement. “You were there, weren’t you?”

“Didn’t the Magic Council tell you what happened?” Loke asked, still not looking up. Wakaba and Macao exchanged a look. It was Reedus who responded. He was much thinner than the last time Loke had seen him, which the spirit would have noticed if he was paying any kind of attention to his surroundings.

“Oui, but they did not see much themselves.” He set his paint brush aside and focussed more on the discussion at hand.

“He’s right,” Jet nodded. “They had that ‘Mest’ guy. Uh, Doranbolt, I think his real name was. He told them everything he’d seen. But he wasn’t in the thick of it like you.”

“Mest...?” Loke thought for a moment. Mest. He had been one of the competitors in the S-Class Trials, right? Wendy’s partner. But...wasn’t he also the one that neither he nor Gray could remember properly? At this point it was as though any memory of him being in the guild didn’t exist anymore. Loke lifted his head to shoot the others a questioning look. “What do you mean, his real name?”

“Oh, right. You don’t know about that either, do you?” Droy moved to the seat next to Jet, a loaded plate of food in his hands. “His name isn’t really Mest. It’s Doranbolt. He’s a wizard who works for the Council, and he has memory-altering magic.”

“Man, this is your fourth meal today,” Jet made a face at the food Droy had brought over. “Don’t you think you should slow down?”

“I’m sorry! I can’t help it! I eat when I’m stressed. And with Levy gone–”

“I know, I know,” Jet rolled his eyes. His expression darkened a little at the mention of the third member of Team Shadow Gear. “Just don’t blame me if it comes back to bite you in the butt.”

“Doranbolt,” Loke repeated, looking to Alzack and Bisca instead. “He was a spy?”

Both gunslingers nodded.

“He was sent to keep an eye on things,” Bisca scowled. “He seems nice enough, but to think the Magic Council would do something like that–”

“Can you really blame them?” Macao asked with a wry smile. “Over the years, we’ve caused our fair share of trouble, even when Natsu wasn’t involved. Some days I’m surprised they haven’t tried to shut Fairy Tail down for good.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Wakaba tugged the cigarette from between his lips and pointed it at his friend, blowing a smoke ring in his direction. “You’ll curse us.”

A few chuckles rose from the small group, and even though it wasn’t significant, the little bit of humor seemed to do wonders for the mood in the room. Even Loke managed a meager smile in spite of himself, the familiarity of the moment making him forget, for just a second, how worried he was for Lucy, for Gray, and for the rest of their friends. For a moment, everything felt normal.

  
  


  
  


“...even with the four of us, we were struggling. The mages we were up against weren’t strong, but their numbers never seemed to get any smaller. It was wearing us out. If my guess is correct, I’d bet that everyone else from Fairy Tail was dealing with the same thing all over the island.”

 

Loke was telling his side of the story, what he had seen. He doubted his experience would help any, but still, the others had asked. There was no harm in telling them. Besides, little Romeo had shown up since Loke had arrived, and he was very interested in hearing about Loke’s adventure.

“That guy from law enforcement didn’t say anything about it,” Wakaba shrugged.

“But think about it, Lahar probably only told us what he thought was important,” Macao pointed out. Wakaba gave a little nod of agreement.

“Pardon, but...what made you leave them?” Reedus asked Loke, who winced at the question.

“One of Grimoire Heart’s main fighters showed up. One of the Seven Kin of Purgatory. Caprico.” Capricorn. His old friend. “You know, it’s kind of lucky we ran into him.”

“Lucky?” Romeo asked, eyes wide. “You run into a member of a super dark guild, and you call that ‘lucky’?”

“Maybe I should have said, that we were lucky  _ he _ was the one who found us,” Loke smirked. “A human, fused with the body of a celestial spirit.”

“Wait, that can happen??” If it was possible, the little boy’s eyes grew even wider. Loke chuckled.

“It’s not supposed to happen, kiddo. But the human, Zoldeo, broke a fundamental rule of magic. He was using Human Subordination magic, which means he could sort of control humans. But he did something he shouldn’t have. He used it on somebody who  _ wasn’t _ human.”

“A spirit, right?” Romeo seemed to be following along pretty well. Loke nodded.

“A spirit. So instead of controlling that spirit, Zoldeo was forced to fuse with him, and he became something entirely new. Caprico. He was strong. Very strong.”

“Stronger than you?”

“Ah, c’mon, are you kidding?” Loke held up a fist, and a brilliant orb of light magic surrounded his clenched hand. The magic power emanating from it made Romeo’s eyes light up in awe. “I could beat ol’ Capricorn in a fight any day! The don’t call me the leader of the Zodiac for nothing!”

“But what about the others?” Alzack asked, drawing Loke’s attention. “You mentioned he could control humans. That would have been dangerous for the others.”

“Exactly,” Loke agreed. He let his magic taper out and folded his hands on the table before him. “I told them to go. I took Caprico on myself. It wasn’t an easy fight. If it were just one-on-one, I could have taken him down no problem...but he kept launching attacks at Lucy. I spent more time defending than attacking, at least until she and Gray and Cana were out of range. Except once that had happened he had a new goal. He was sick of being stuck as a goat...he wanted to look human. He wanted to control  _ me _ .”

“What? No! How’d you stop him?” Romeo was still hanging on his every word. He clambered up onto the table to sit cross-legged on its surface.

“I didn’t.” The words were sheepish, and Loke could feel his back twinge in discomfort as he remembered what had happened next. “It was the strangest feeling, like I was being completely smothered in darkness. It was suffocating. I managed to gain freedom for a moment, but I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to escape it for long, so I passed my Regulus magic onto Capricorn right before Zoldeo took over. Capricorn hit me with a heavy dose of my own power, and the force of it was strong enough to separate us.”

A dark, angry look clouded his eyes and he clenched his teeth with a snarl.

“The things Zoldeo was planning to do to Lucy...stars...if he wasn’t already dead, I’d hunt him down destroy him right here and now.”

“He’s dead?” Romeo murmured, leaning forward where he sat. “Did you kill him?”

“No, I didn’t even get the chance,” Loke scowled. He saw Macao shoot him a look and he forced a smile. “Not that I would, kiddo. Killing is wrong. You can take out a bad guy without resorting to that. But even if I’d wanted to, he had written his own death long before I got there. By fusing with Capricorn, he had cursed himself to never be able to live in his own body. He disappeared piece by piece until nothing was left.”

“Yeesh. That doesn’t sound like a pretty way to go out,” Wakaba commented. Droy murmured his agreement.

“It wasn’t,” Loke agreed. He took a breath and leaned back a bit in his seat, tucking his hands away in his pockets. “Anyway, after being possessed, then getting attacked with the full force of Regulus at point-blank range, I was basically running on empty. Plus I’d been staying here in the human world on my own magic for days. For a silver-key spirit that might kill them, but we Zodiac spirits are stronger, and I’m the strongest of the Zodiac. It took me three whole years of living here with you guys before I started dying.”

“Woooaaaah….” Romeo breathed. He grinned and looked up to Macao, who was standing behind him. “Loke’s so cool, dad! He’s the best!”

“I thought Natsu was the best?” Macao asked with a soft laugh.

“Well...okay, _Natsu’s_ the best. But Loke’s super cool too! Like Gray and Erza!”

Loke smiled. If he was being categorized with his closest friend in Fairy Tail, he could live with that. Gray was a strong wizard. His smile slowly faded...Gray had been on Tenrou Island too. Gray, Lucy, and so many others. If the Island really was gone, like Macao claimed it was, then why could he still feel a connection to Lucy? Why could he still sense her through their bond? They weren’t dead. They couldn’t possibly be.

“So you just headed back to the spirit world?” Jet asked. Loke nodded.

“Yeah, I couldn’t stay much longer. It was taking too much out of me. I let Lucy know I’d be back, and I left. But…” He rubbed at the back of his neck and closed his eyes. When he next spoke there was an obvious frustration in his words. “I was asleep for four hours. I hadn’t meant to do that. I was just going to grab a quick five minute power nap and head right back to the island. I thought that was all I would need. Turns out I was in worse shape than I had assumed. But...four hours...that’s two weeks here. By the time I woke up, everything was over. I didn’t know what was going on. I just knew that Lucy hadn’t summoned me in a long time, and I got worried. So I went to her. Normally I’d show up right next to her. But this time–”

“You didn’t.” Alzack finished his sentence for him. Loke snarled and tugged at his tie, yanking it off and starting to wring it out above the table. Water pooled on the wooden surface.

“I got dropped in the middle of the damn ocean!” he snapped. “There wasn’t any sign of her.”

A few people exchanged looks, and Macao said aloud what some of them were thinking.

“How do you know she’s not...gone?” he asked. “If the Island is the last place Lucy was, then wouldn’t you have shown up where the Island used to be?”

“No, trust me on this,” Loke glared at him. “I can still feel her. The bond is...is  _ muffled _ , somehow. It’s muted but - but it’s there!”

“Are ‘ou sure?” Droy spoke up around a mouthful of chicken. He swallowed before continuing. “I hate to say it, but maybe it’s muffled because–”

“You don’t understand,” Loke shook his head. He was getting fed up with people telling him what he knew wasn’t true. “As a celestial spirit, I can feel my connection to her, to my key. Our contract remains unbroken. If she were dead, that wouldn’t be the case.”

“How do you know?” Bisca asked softly. Loke tensed and gripped his tie tighter.

“...because I know what it feels like when a spirit’s owner dies, and this isn’t it.”

 

Karen.

 

The last time it had happened, he hadn’t noticed. He had been in so much pain from staying in the human world. He had been blocking out anything coming from his bond with Karen. He’d been ignoring it. But once Master Bob had told him what had happened, once he let himself open up to that connection again - stars - the pain he felt, the anguish, was so strong. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it before. He couldn’t believe he had missed it. And for as much as he hated Karen for the way she treated her spirits, he had mourned her death for years after the fact. Just the memory of how it had felt made Loke’s breath catch and he tried so, very hard not to picture how much worse that feeling would be….if it was Lucy who died.

 

“This...feels nothing like that. Believe me. If Lucy was dead–” He broke off, took a breath, and met Bisca’s gaze. “I would know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! I knew I wanted to write something that involved Loke - because, let's face it, he's a fantastic character. He has a lot of depth, despite his flirtatious exterior. He's loyal and funny and a hell of a good friend...and his adoration for Lucy is obvious. Personally I would love to see him and Lucy together...so this does have some one-sided LoLu written into it. ^^
> 
> If I get the drive, I've very, very tempted to write a LoLu fic, most likely including this scene as part of it....
> 
> ....and on a semi-related note, the idea of an AU in which Loke is Lucy's Sassy Gay Friend™ who gives her dating advice also gives me life. He just pops on out of nowhere while she's sitting in the mall food court staring at a cute guy, and he just sips on his smoothie and–
> 
> "Lucy, love, just look at what he's wearing. His hair may be perfect, but those shoes have definitely seen better days. He's cheap. He'd be a cheap date, and probably leave you with the bill. Don't bother with him. You can do so much better."
> 
> (The fact that I'm tempted to write this as well might spell danger for my sleep schedule. ^^;)


End file.
